West Waterford AC are holding their annual Winter League this year in Dungarvan and it has now been running for an amazing 29 years! It has featured before on the RTE Nationwide TV programme.
There is a choice of two courses... 2.5-miles & 5.2-miles and the runs are held on 11 Wednesday nights from the 15th of November to the end of January 2024. The whole league costs €40 which works out as just under €4 per run, a marked contrast to many of the road races on the calendar.
According to the organisers, the main aim of the winter league is to promote health and fitness through running, especially for those that have never ran before.
For the first event on the 15th of November 2023, they had 380 finishers... 143 in the short 2.5-mile run and 237 in the long 5.2 mile run.
West Waterford AC reported the following... "RECORD ENTRY FOR FIRST ROUND AND 3RD LARGEST NUMBER EVER. IN 2013 WE HAD 393 ON THE 3RD NIGHT."
The large numbers show that there is a demand for this type of event during the dark Winter evenings and I suspect a lot of those taking part have no interest at all in road races or the like. They just want to take part in an organised run that is safe.
What about Cork??... That then raises the question if a similar type of event could go ahead in Cork? About a decade or more ago, there was a 3k series held in Midleton but it kind of got too big for the location.
The numbers in Dungarvan certainly suggest that there would be a demand for this type of event in Cork City or County.
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